What an honor to be written up in the New York Times! Thank you to Eric Asimov, for recommending our 2016 Grenache in his recent article focusing on California Grenache. If you would like to taste this wine as well, Click Here to visit our online store and pick up a bottle!

YOUR NEXT LESSON: CALIFORNIA GRENACHE

BY ERIC ASIMOV

From amontillado we go to a much more contemporary sort of wine, grenache from California.

Also known as garnacha in Spain, where the grape is thought to have originated, grenache has long been a part of the California equation. It was an essential component in old mixed black heritage vineyards, in which many different black grapes were planted and vinified all together.

Over the last 30 years, I’ve seen a few good examples of California grenache, but it’s really been in the last decade or so that grenache has stepped out in California as an interesting wine with a great potential to evolve.

News

We agree with Elin McCoy of Bloomberg, our 2016 Grenache from Dry Creek Valley was the best wine for the Thanksgiving table. We also think that it is the best wine for your Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night table! Make everyday Thanksgiving with one of our best food-pairing wines.

When 48 of the West's top wine tasters judge almost 3,000 bottles the results yield terrific insider tips for drinking well. We've mined our Gold Medal winners from this year's Sunset International Wine Competition for trends that will put the best bottles on your table.

Thank you for the feature! We love Carignane and are always excited to meet others that feel the same. The sandy, dry-farmed Evangelho vineyard is home to some of our favorite gnarled and head trained 130-year-old carignane vines. Though Carignane is typically blended with our Zinfandel, we saw (and tasted) something special in these vines and decided to bottle our current 2015 vintage on its own.

5 TO TRY: CARIGNAN

2017 SEPT/OCT ISSUEOnce planted widely across the Mediterranean, California and Chile, Carignan was a high-volume grape that became associated with cheap red blends, and after falling from favor, many vines were ripped out. But of the plantings that remained, producers found that the older the vines got, the better the resulting wines tasted, and Carignan is now garnering well-deserved praise. Ashley Ragovin, L.A.-based sommelier and founder of Pour This wine club, makes a compelling case for Carignan: “You could drink it out of a shoe with almost anything on the table and it satisfies; it’s acrobatic with warm baking spices and dried herbs, brings out the berry goodness in dishes with red fruits and ups the umami twang in meats,” she says. “All that and it’s got Goldilocks for body—it’s just freakin’ right!”

Welcome to Wine Country! Oakland's Urban Wine Trail is wine country with an urban twist. Stop by our winery while traveling the trail for a chance to see winemaking in action. Our Tasting Room is right in the middle of our Winery... come harvest-time you'll be able to see the grapes and smell the fermentation!

ALE, WINE TRAILS REVEAL OAKLAND'S UNIQUE LOCAL FLAVOR

SF GATE

Imagine tasting wines in unusual spaces like renovated warehouses, art galleries and on a waterfront on an estuary. When you follow the Oakland Urban Wine Trail, that’s exactly what you’ll discover, with nine wineries set in the city proper, including popular destinations like Jack London Square and the historic Swan’s Market.

As a collaboration between the Visit Oakland tourism organization and winemakers of Oakland, the entire trail can be toured over a relaxing two or three days, including time to eat at area restaurants, visit art galleries, and shop at local boutiques in between tastings.

Thank you, Sara Schneider of Sunset Magazine, for the wonderful article. We've been making single-vineyard zinfandels for over twenty years; our goal has always been to create elegant wines with intense fruit flavors that are long-lived and well balanced and we very much appreciate that you've included us in your list of outstanding zinfandels!

Wine fads come, and wine fads go. I remember as if it were yesterday a colleague saying, “Hey, I’m interested in this Merlot I’ve been hearing about!” (That was about 25 years ago, and we all know how that turned out.) One California wine, though, has survived the crushing vicissitudes of history: It’s Zinfandel, and it’s having a new, and notable, moment as one of the state’s most interesting reds.